It is now official. Nationals Park will not be hosting a playoff series this year. What is surprising is that the Nats were not the first team to be mathematically eliminated from the post season. What is shocking is that the team is 8-2 in their last 10 games. The Nats have 21 games left in the season, and they have to win 9 in order to avoid 100 losses. A week ago, it seemed…

The Nats are 3-3 in the last week. They even managed to score 25 runs in those 6 games, up from the 17 that they scored in the previous 7 games. They are still only batting .218 as a team with a .267 OBP in the last 7 days, putting them second to last in the National League during that period. Overall, the team is last in the National League with a .234 batting average,…

Jim Bowden has been a busy man this offseason. Since we last left the Nationals, they have acquired outfielder Elijah Dukes, infielder Aaron Boone, pitcher Tyler Clippard, and catcher Paul Lo Duca. They have also signed outfielder Wily Mo Pena to a one year deal. Betting that he can’t possibly have two horrible years in a row, the Nats have also signed outfielder Ryan “more strikeouts than total bases” Langerhans to a one year deal….

In Trader Jim’s first move of the off-season, the Nationals have traded catcher Brian Schneider and outfielder Ryan Church to the Mets for outfielder Lastings Milledge. Milledge batted .272 last year with 7 HRs, 29 RBIs, .341 OBP and .446 slugging, though he only accumulated 184 at-bats. Church had similar averages last year, but with almost 300 more at-bats only had 8 more homeruns and 41 more RBIs. Schneider only hit .235 last year, with…

Since we last left the Nationals, the team has gone 4-3 and pulled itself out of last place in the NL East. They are one win away from 63, and thus avoiding the humiliation of triple digit loses this year. They are also nine wins from tying last year’s total. These are the metrics we have to use to judge a team that wasn’t really competing for the post-season anyway (during the pre-season, Vegas…

We were rubbing our eyes last Sunday as we watched the Nationals sweep the Florida Marlins to win their first series of the year. Then they took 3 of 4 from the Braves and knocked them out of first place in the NL East, and now we’re asking ourselves, “Who the hell are these guys?” With only two of their regular starters hitting over .250 and none of them within shouting distance of .300, they…